New Endings
by MaybeWeAre
Summary: Emma drives Regina and Henry home after Henry shows them the library. Regina still wants that drink. Heroes & Villains spoilers.


Henry headed upstairs, and Emma shoved her hands awkwardly into her pockets, not sure what she was supposed to do now. She was only in the mansion at all because she'd given Regina and Henry a ride home from the Author's house. And now, she was standing in the kitchen, wondering if Regina wanted her to go.

She glanced at Regina, surprised to find the brunette looking at her. She was surprised to see the vulnerability on Regina's face, too, but that was quickly masked. "Did you still want that drink?" Regina asked.

She said it like she was asking Emma to stay, like she didn't want to be alone. Emma knew that look all too well. "Absolutely," she said, giving Regina what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

Regina moved easily about the kitchen, back in her element, fetching glasses and pouring drinks. She held one out to Emma, their fingers brushing as the blonde took it.

"So," Emma said as she followed Regina to the study and sat down beside her, probably too close beside her, on the couch. "Give me the briefing on Operation Mongoose."

Regina took a sip. "You know all there is to know. There's a library full of empty books and if I can find the Author…" She nervously brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "Maybe he could write me a new ending."

Emma took a swig herself, considering. "We need to make sure no one knows about that library. Everyone has something in their story they'd want to change. It would be mayhem."

Regina nodded, studying Emma in that intense way she'd done ever since the blonde returned from New York. "What would you change?"

"What's your happy ending?" Emma asked, downing the rest of her glass. "Are you going to ask him to bring Robin back?"

Regina's jaw tightened at that, a little bit of the shine going out of her eyes. "I asked you first," she said simply, taking Emma's empty glass to refill. "What would you change?"

"Well, I think I've learned my lesson about fucking around with time travel," Emma said with a smile. "So while I'd love to have had parents, and I'd love to have been a normal kid instead of pregnant in jail, I wouldn't want to mess with anything that could keep Henry from happening."

Regina thought back to that morning on the town line, to the page she'd torn to bits. Emma was right—there was no changing the past, not if it cost them Henry. She would gladly take the suffering of her life, she'd gladly do it all over again, if it meant she could be with her son. "What would you change about the future, then? What's _your_ happy ending?" She took her seat again, this time bringing the bottle with her.

"I asked you first," Emma repeated with a grin, gratefully taking her newly filled glass. "My happy ending, I guess, would be having a family," she said anyway, voice going so soft that Regina had to lean forward to hear her. "It's what I've always wanted."

"You have more family than you know what to do with," Regina pointed out.

"A family without all the baggage." Emma pulled her legs up onto the couch, surprised that Regina didn't scold her for shoes on the furniture. But Regina was so focused on her face that she didn't know if the brunette had even seen the movement. "I'd want something like what I had back in New York. A family that's new and that's mine." She allowed herself a small smile, one that Regina instantly mirrored. "I would hand you the book and let you write my new ending, since you did such a good job the last time."

Regina's gaze dropped to her lap. "Do you still want to take Henry and go back?"

"More than anything," Emma said without hesitation. "Aren't you tired of all this Storybrooke nonsense?"

Regina knocked back the rest of her drink. "You have no idea," she said, with a hint of that deep, hollow chuckle that always caught Emma off guard.

"Well, it's settled. All three of us move to New York. And once we're out of here you can look up Robin."

Regina stared down at the bottle, seriously contemplating just drinking straight from it, but forcing herself to pour it into the glass before draining it all at once. "I wouldn't."

"Move to New York?"

"Look up Robin." The words felt truer than anything she'd said in a long time.

Emma shifted closer, looking puzzled. "Are you mad at him for leaving? I mean, I get that, but it's not entirely his fault, right?"

"There's a room full of books," Regina said, not looking at anything in particular. "There's a room full of happy endings just waiting to be written. Robin was just one possibility, but I don't need him. I could be happy without him someday." She raised the bottle to her lips, decorum be damned. "I _will_ be happy without him."

Emma beamed at that, just like she had back in the library. Just like she had in the moment when Regina realized that Robin was just a means to an end, that she could and would live without him. "So what do you want?" Emma asked. "What would you ask that author guy to write for you?"

The answer had changed so much over the course of Regina's life. Acceptance, freedom, power, revenge, forgiveness, she'd wanted it all. But the true answer was easy, had been there from the start. "Love," she said simply. "To love someone and have them truly love me back."

"But Robin…"

"Didn't love me," Regina admitted, staring down at her empty glass. "He didn't know me well enough."

Emma reached over, crossed the remaining space between them to place her hand softly against Regina's arm. "You'll find it. Mongoose or no Mongoose."

"I have Henry," Regina added. "He's enough."

Emma didn't know if it was the alcohol or the exhaustion of the past few days or the way Regina's nearness always turned her into something of an idiot. Or maybe it was something like bravery. "You need love to make a family, you know," she said, and Regina turned those sad but hopeful eyes towards her again. "And we both need Henry, so maybe we could combine our happy endings. Maybe…" She paused, unsure of her words, unsure of herself. "Maybe I could be enough."

Emma had never been enough. Not for the foster families that shunted her from place to place. Not for Neal. Not for her parents with their replacement baby. Not even for Henry, as much as he adored her, because he needed his other mother—even during their year in New York, Regina had been there in a way, guiding them.

But the way Regina kissed her made her feel like, for the first time, she could be.


End file.
